Press Releases - New Engine Rules

New Engine Rules

New engine rules are around the corner and there are still a lot of unknowns about new engine rules:
https://myracingcareer.tumblr.com/post/614931463020969984/new-formula-1-engines-idea

By my calculations it will cost around 75M to develop new engine, including employee salaries, engine department costs and project costs. It was said that by buying your engine you will save 15 - 20 % so this comes to 11 - 15M saved.


It was also said that the reference point for supplier engine quality will be quality of top engine parts developed by teams. Will suppliers engine's quality and cost change if the team upgrades its engine during the season? No one knows...

In first two seasons suppliers engines will be better by 1-2% then top engine (up to 0,1s). In reality this gap will be 0,3s because teams that will decide to develop their engine will not be able to fully develop their chassis and aero parts.

During 5th season it should be 2-3% under 3rd team`s engine (or around 0.1-0.2 seconds slower) and it should stay like that until end of engines period. My question here is what happens if only 1 or 2 teams decide to develop their engine? What happens if there is huge gap between the quality of 3rd best engine and the top 2. For example top 2 engine's quality is 96% and 95%, but 3rd best engine is only at 90%.

I also wonder about time gaps. Are stated time gaps for fully tuned engine? How much can you gain/lose with engine tuning?

For this engine it took Porsche 180+ days to get over 96%. With car designers having no experience it will take even longer. probably at least another 30 days...

I really like the idea behind new engine rules, but the balance is way off. If there are not at lest 7 developed engines there is something wrong with the balance of the rules. I don't think we would have 7 developed engines with current Debik's proposal.


So here is my solution... First we have to simplify things to make is clear:
- 1st season: best suppliers engine = best developed engine.
- 2nd season: best suppliers engine = 2nd best developed engine.
- 3rd season: best suppliers engine = 3rd best developed engine.
- 4th season: best suppliers engine = 4th best developed engine.
- 5th season and beyond: best suppliers engine = 5th best developed engine.

Cost of suppliers engine is 90% of the cost of developed engine.


Otherwise I would rather see that we eliminate engine development and that teams sign 4 year contracts with engine suppliers of their choosing.

on 2020-11-17 20:10:01 by torbar4life